Intake manifold



July 4, 1933. c. E. SUMMERS 1,916,500

INTAKE MANIFOLD Filed May 8, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet l gmwnto'o July 4,1933. c SUMMERS 1,916,500

INTAKE MANIFOLD Filed May 8, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 .14 "if! L y 1 f S III I! 11111wllllfifilililllllliill .4 M gwwmtoz 15 9 Patented July 1933UNITED asT -rss PATENT OFFICE cALnB n. sUMMnns, or ron'rmc, IC I AN,AssIGnon TO G ERAL MOTORS con PORATION, or nn'rnorr, MICHIGAN, ACORPORATION or DELAWARE INTAKE MANIFOLD Ap p'iicatio'n f led May s1930.. Serial K014503001 The' principal object of this invention is toprovide, in the induction system of-a multicylinder internal combustionengine which includes a charge forming device and a manif0ld in whichthere-are provided a main passage leading fromthe charge formingdevice,a branch p-assageleading from the main passage to a cylinder orcylinders, and a 7 second branch passage leading from the main passageto a cylinder or cylinders whose suction strokes alternate symmetricallywith the suction strokes of the cylinder or cylinders to which the firstbranch leads, means to insure that uniform and properly measusedquantities of-combustible mixture will be supplied to the two branchpassages when the' engine is operating with the-throttle valve closedorionly slightly opened.-

Broadly speaking, the invention resides in providingin the inductionsystem of an engine of the type described above, a by-passage whichcommunicates atone end with the main passage on the atmospheric sideofthe throttle valve and communicates at its opposite end with twopassages of which each communicates with one of the. branch passages ofthe manifold. 1 a

For a better understanding of the nature and the objects of the presentinvention,

3 reference is made to thefollowing specification in which there isdescribed the proferredembodiment of my invention which is illustratedin the accompanying drawings.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a top plan view of an internalcombustion engine oft-he V-type, with parts of the charge forming devicebroken away;

Figure 2 is an enlarged section through the intake and exhaust manifoldstaken substantially'on the line 2'2 of Figure 1. 3 l

Figure 3 is a top plan view. of the intake and exhaust manifold headers,with the throttle valve removedw Figure 4 is a section taken onsubstantially the lined- 1 0f Figure 3. I

In the drawings, the reference character 10 indicates an internalcombustionengine of the V-type whichincludes two cylinder blocks'll.

and 12 ineach of which there are provided 7 four cylinders. In each of;the cylinders, there is provided a piston which is connected by means ofa connecting rod to one of the crankpins of a crankshaft which isjournalled.

in suitable hearings in the crankcase. The throws of the crankshaft areso arranged that the explosions in the cylinders (which are indicated bythe reference characters a, b, r

0, (1,0, f, g and h, respectively) and, consequently, the suctionstrokes of the pistons, occur in the order a, f, c, e, d, g, b, h.

Theintake manifoldincludes aconduit 13 which communicates at'its frontend with the cylinders a and b and at its rear end with the cylinders cand d and a conduit 14 which communicates at its front end with'thecylinders e and f and at its rear end with the cylinders g and h. v

Theexhaust manifold includes a conduit 15 which communicates with thecylinders in the block 12and aconduit 16 which communicates with; thecylinders; in the block 11 and throughan intermediate portion of whoselower watllthere extends an opening 17 through which the exhaust gasesmay pass into an exhaust 'pipe atmosphere. r V

Between the cylinder blocks 11 and 12, thereis located a header 18 inwhich there are provided an intake passage 19, whose opposite endscommunicate with the conduits 13 and 14, respectively, and below theintake passage an exhaust passage 20 whose opposite endscommunicate'withthe'conduits 16 and 15, respectively, and through whichthe exhaust gases from the cylinders in the block F and, thence, to the12may pass from the conduit 15 into the intermediate portion of theconduit .16 and,

thence, through the opening 17 and the exhaust pipe tothe atmosphere.

Into the upper side of the intake header,

there-extends an opening which is surrounded by an upwardly extendingneck 21 to which the charge forming device 22 is adapted to beconnected, as shown in thedrawings. Within the upper end of the neck,there is located a butterfly type throttle valve 23 which is secured toa shaft. 24which is journalled in the wall of the'neck and towhich issecured an operating arm.

Extending at a right angle tothe axis'of the intake passage 19 anddiametrically with respect to the neck 21, there is located a partition25 which subdivides the interior of the intake passage and the neck. Theupper edge of the partition 25 is formed as the arc of'a circle whosecenter is located in the axis of the shaft 24 and whose diameter is justsufliciently greater than the diameter of the throttle valve 23 toinsure that the wall will not interfere with operation of the throttlevalve.

lVhen the engine is operating, the partition 25 serves to divide thestream of combustible mixture which passes the throttle valve into twostreams of which one flows into each of the branches of the passage 19whence it passes into the adjacent conduit (13 or 14) and, thence, intothe cylinders of the engine which communicate with that conduit. Whenthe engine is operating with the. throttle valve opened considerably,the volume of combustible mixture which passes the throttle valve on oneside of the plane passing through the partition 25, will besubstantially equal to that which passes the throttle valveon the otherside ofthe plane and, consequently, the volume of combustible mixturewhich passes intoone branch of the passage 19 will be substantiallyequal to thatwhich passes into the other branch thereof. However, sinceit is not commercially practicable to manufacture throttle valves sothat they fit the passages which they are designed to control uniformlythroughout their circumferences, when the engine is operating with thethrottle valve closed or only slightly opened, the

faulty distribution of the combustible mixture occurring when the engineis operating with the throttle valve closed or only slightly' opened, Ihave provided means for bypassing the greater part of the combustiblemixture around the throttle valve under these conditions. This meansincludes a vertical bore26 which extends through a wall of the neck 21and communicates at its upper end with atransverse bore 27 which opensinto the interior of the neckon the atmospheric side of the throttlevalve 23. Thelower end of the bore 26 communicates with a transversebore 28 which extends into the partition 25 and terminatessubstantiallyat the center of the neck 21. Into the inner end of the bore 28, thereextends through the. partition 25 from each side thereof, a'bo're 29which vWhen the engine is operating with the I throttle valve closed oronly slightly opened, the suction created by the pistons on theirsuction strokes will draw the greater proportion; of the combustiblemixture generated by the charge forming device into the bore 26 whenceitwill pass, successively, into the bores 27 and 28. From the bore 28,combustible mixture will be discharged through the bores 29 alternatelyinto each branch of passage 19 and will, together with combustblemixture which has entered the passage 19 from the neck 21, pass into thecylinders in the adjacent block (11 or 12). On account of the greatdifference in the pressures existing at the opposite ends of the bypass,when the engine is operating with the throttle valve closed or onlyslightly opened, and the'size of the bores 29,the fuel in thecombustible mixture which is drawn into the fby-pass will be dischargedfrom the bores 29 in an atomized condition and at such highvelocitythatit will be carried to the cylinders without being condensed. Sincethe engine suction will be applied alternately to each of the bores 29and since the suction applied to one of the bores 29 will besubstantially equal tothat which is applied to the other bore 29, equalquantities of combustiblemix ture Will alternately be discharged intoeach j of the branches of the passage 19 and nonuniform and unequaldistribution of combustible mixture will, consequently, be eliminated. ii

To regulate 'the volume of combustible mixture which flows through theby-pass, there may be provided therein a regulating valve of anysuitable type. r

The degree of atomization of the fuel in the combustible mixture and,consequently,

'the uniformity of distributionof the com bustibl e mixture, when theengine is operat ing with-the throttle closed or only slightly opened,may be increased by heating the combustible mixture as it flows throughthe by-pass. Means by which the combustible mixture flowing through theby-pass and/or that flowing through the neck 21 may be heated isincorporated in the structure shown in the drawings and will bedescribed directly.

The neck 21 and the adjacent parts of the I intake passage 19 aresurrounded by a jacket 30. Between the walls of the jacket and the wallsofthe neck and the header, there i wall of theexhaust passage 20, on'oneside of the Wall 32, there extends an opening 33 through which exhaustgases may be admitted into the space 31 and, on the other. side of thewall, an opening 34 through which the exhaust gases may be dischargedfrom the space 31. In the wall of the exhaust passage directly beneaththe wall 32, there is journalled a shaft 35 on which there is mounted abutterfly type valve '36 which may, by means of an operating arm 37, beshiftedso as to cause any desired proportion of the exhaust ases flowingthrough the passage 20 from the conduit l5'to the opening 17 to passthrough the space 31.

It will, of course, be understood that, although I have shown anddescribed my invention as incorporated in a particular type of engine,it maybe applied to other engines in which the demand for combustiblemixture at the point in the induction system at which the stream ofcombustible mixture is divided, alternates symmetrically in each of twodirections. Specifically, it may be pointed out that the invention isapplicable to six cylinder and V-8 engines with crankshafts of which allthe throws are located in a single plane and conventional firing order,straight eight engines with single manifolds and crankshafts in whichthe "four throws adjacent one end are located in a single plane and thefour throws adjacent the other end are located in a single plane whichis located at a right angle to the plane in which the first mentionedthrows are located, and straight eight engines with dual manifolds ofwhich one branch supplies the central four cylinders and the otherbranch the two forward and two rear cylinders and with crankshatts inwhich the two throws adjacent one end are located in a single plane, thenext four succeeding throws are located in a single plane which islocated at a right angle to the plane in which the first mentionedthrows are located, and'the remaining throws are located in a singleplane which is located at a right angle to the plane in which the fourthrows are located.

I claim: 3

1. In an internal combustion engine of the class described, a pluralityof cylinders, a charge forming device, a conduit communicating with thecharge forming device, a conduit which communicates intermediate itsends with the first-mentioned conduit, at one end with one or more ofthe cylinders and at the other end with the other cylinder or cylinders,a valve located on the atmospheric side of the second-mentioned conduitfor controlling the passage of combustible mixture from the chargeforming device to the cylinders, a wall which forms a partition withinthe second-mentioned conduit and which is adapted to divide the streamof combustible mixture which passes the valve into two streams, of whichone flows into each of the branches of the second mentioned conduit, anda passage opening into the firstanentioned conduit on the atmosphericside of the valve and having a branch opening into the second-mentioned1- conduit on each side of the partition.

2. In an internal combustion engine of the type described, an intakemanifold which includes a T-shaped conduit, a valve in the intermediatebranch of the conduit, a partition which is located between the portionsof the cross branch of the conduit on the opposite through the partitioninto the interior of the portions of the cross branch on the oppositesides of the partition.

3. In a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine, a charge formingdevice, an intake manifold in which there are provided a main mixturepassage leading from the charge forming device, abranoh passage leadingfrom the main mixture passage to a plurality of cylinders, and a secondbranch passage leading from the main mixture passage to a plurality ofcylinders whose suction strokes alternate symmetrically with thesuction'strokes of the cylinders to which the first branch leads, avalve'for controlling the passage of combustible mixture from the chargeformingdevice to the cylinders through the main mixture passage, and apassage communicating with the main mixture passage on both theatmospheric side and the engine side of the valve for conductingcombustible mixture around the valve and discharging a portion of itinto each of the branch passages alternately. 7

4. The invention claimed in claim 3 plus means for supplying heatdirectly to the combustible mixture passing from the charge CALEB E.SUMMERS.

